


God Save the Village Green

by ecto_gammat



Category: Hot Fuzz (2007)
Genre: Community: rarepairfest, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-13 21:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4538571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ecto_gammat/pseuds/ecto_gammat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Nicholas visited the field, a work crew was demolishing the model village.</p>
            </blockquote>





	God Save the Village Green

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/gifts).



The first time Nicholas visited the field, a work crew was demolishing the model village.

It was just after 1400 hours on a Thursday, and the field was almost completely mud from the overnight storm. Sergeant Fisher was off to one side, ostensibly supervising the clean-up, but he seemed more enthralled by his conversation with one of the workers.

Secure in the knowledge that the temporary station was in Doris’s capable hands, Nicholas leaned against the hood and let his mind start to wander. Had it really been a month since The Incident (and would he always think of it in capital letters)?

Of course it had been. Danny was still in hospital, and probably would be for the foreseeable future. He’d been healing nicely until sepsis set in, and his surgeon decided to go back and check for damaged tissue. Since then, Danny had been on a strong course of antibiotics and orders not to move from the bed.

Nicholas chewed on his bottom lip. Maybe he’d leave Doris in charge and take a half day; he hadn’t been to the hospital since early Tuesday. 

Sergeant Fisher finally spotted him and gave an awkward wave, which Nicholas returned. Yes, he’d definitely take the day and visit Danny.

\- - - - - 

The second time he visited the field was three weeks later, the night after Danny was released.

The sun had almost set, and the two were sitting in Nicholas’s squad car in a pull-off overlooking the now flattened model village, which was nothing more than a few concrete slabs. Danny insisted on tagging along for the ride, complaining that he had spent the better part of two months in a bed and he wasn’t going to sit still one minute longer than he had to, thank you very much.

“I don’t know what the council is going to do with the space,” Nicholas said. “If I had my way, I’d tear up the concrete and let it grow over. The idea of a model village just seems so…” he paused, searching for the right word.

“Stuck up?”

He looked at Danny, a small smile on his face. “Yeah. Exactly. Perhaps a bit old-fashioned as well.” 

“Kinda screams ‘look at me’, doesn’t it?” Danny said, bouncing back and forth. “‘Oh, _look at me_ , I’m _Sandford_ , and I’m so awesome I’ve got a mini-me on the way into tow-” he quickly stopped bouncing, sucking in a sharp breath and clutching his side. 

“Danny, knock it off,” Nicholas immediately began feeling Danny’s abdomen. “You’ve still got stitches in. Careful movements, remember?” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Danny readjusted in his seat. Night had finally fallen.

“Alright. Let’s get you back home and settled. Maybe watch the next _Die Hard_?”

Danny smiled. “Yeah, that sounds brilliant.”

\- - - - - 

The third time was Danny’s idea.

He had been back to work for a week, and in that week, he’d been a neverending source of vivacity and jovial jokes about their village hall _cum_ temporary station. He’d been all smiles, but Nicholas could see the pain that the other man was still in. The stitches were out, but Danny would still unconsciously hold his abdomen and make small grimaces when he’d move too quickly. 

They had an hour left on their shift when Danny suggested pulling off by the field. Nicholas put the car in park, and as they undid their seatbelts, Danny sighed heavily.

“I still can’t reconcile it, y’know?” he murmured, staring out the windscreen. “All that happened. My whole life. It still don’t make sense.” 

Nicholas sat and listened to his partner, still looking straight ahead.

“It’s just… how could something so ugly happen in a place like Sandford?”

Nicholas didn’t know how to answer him, but goddamnit, he was going to try. “As cliche as it sounds, I suppose it could have happened anywhere. Ugly doesn’t pick and choose, Danny. Ugly simply is.”

Danny huffed in a way that could be considered a laugh. Nicholas pressed on.

“Do you know how much ugly there is in London? People tend to romanticize London, especially those living there, but the city is riddled with ugly. We’re the police, so we tend to see all of the ugly firsthand. It is a testament to one’s character on how they overcome the ugly in their lives. If we can come out of this for the better, in _any_ way, we can truly say that we’ve conquered the ugly.”

Danny turned to his partner and smiled. “You used the word ‘ugly’ in every sentence you said.”

Nicholas laughed. “A tic of mine, I suppose. I suppose I repeat words when I’m unsure of what I’m to say.”

It was Danny’s turn to laugh. “You jus’ did it again.”

“I suppose I did.” 

Nicholas turned to face Danny, laying a hand gently on his partner’s arm. “Come on, partner. We’ve got thirty eight minutes left, and then we can hit the pub.”

“Pub’s great.”

\- - - - - 

The fourth visit was over an accident.

They had caught someone doing 56 in a 30 zone and were in pursuit. The driver lost control in the turn and fishtailed into a tree. Luckily, the airbag deployed, saving the driver from possible considerable harm. 

The driver flopped out of the car, and Nicholas immediately recognized him as Danny’s cousin, or, if Danny had his say, Aunt Jackie’s sister’s brother’s boy (but, for the life of him, Nicholas couldn’t remember the name; Cocker, perhaps?). He didn’t appear injured, maybe slightly intoxicated, and Nicholas insisted that he lie still until paramedics arrived.

While Nicholas made his way back to the squad car, Danny sauntered over to where the boy was sitting (Cocker, he thinks; someone who drove that much like a cock just _had_ to be named Cocker) and squatted down beside him. Nicholas watched as they conversed quietly, one or both of them occasionally laughing. 

It was something Nicholas easily forgot, having worked and lived in London most of his life: Danny knew all of these people. Literally _everyone_. He had grown up with them, been to parties with them, barbeques with them, the pub with them. 

London was different; in London, it didn’t matter if you knew who you were arresting, because, nice and a half times out of ten, you didn’t, and if you did, you could always call in impartial backup. 

Arresting someone in Sandford had to be a challenge to his team, because they were, at the very least, arresting someone that they knew in passing. Now that the Sandford Police Service was actually acting the way the Sandford Police Service should, his officers were presented with a whole new conundrum: how to police someone you knew without letting your personal attachments take hold.

Nicholas had no idea how he might be different if he grew up in a place like Sandford instead of London (well, minus the conspiratorial Neighborhood Watch Alliance). Would he still be the hard-ass he is now? Would he still have problems switching off? 

Would he ever have met Danny?

The ambulance was just pulling away with Mister Cocker safely tucked in the back as the tow truck pulled in. Nicholas absentmindedly watched the tow truck man work, lost in his thoughts, oblivious to his surroundings. He jumped slightly when he felt something touch his shoulder. It was Danny, a concerned look on his face, and warmth bloomed in Nicholas’s chest. 

“Alright?”

“Yeah, Danny, I’m fine.”

“Looked a little lost for a minute there.”

Nicholas smiled. “Got a bit stuck in my head for a bit, I guess.” 

“You’re repeatin’ again,” Danny said, giving his partner a side-eyed look.

Nicholas clapped Danny on the shoulder. “Let’s finish this up and head back to the station.”

Danny beamed. “I think there’s some more ice cream stowed away somewhere.”

\- - - - - 

The fifth time was a surprise.

They had finished their shifts and were in Danny’s new car when Nicholas noticed that Danny had missed the turn for the pub. “Wait, the pub’s back that way.”

“Really, Captain Obvious? I seem to have forgotten how to get there,” Danny laughed, “Only lived here all my life.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes. “I thought this was a pub night.”

Danny grinned. “We’re not doing the pub tonight,” he said, tapping his temple. “Got something much better in mind.”

“Danny, where are we going?”

“Ain’t tellin’.” 

As they drove through town, Nicholas racked his brain, trying to think of what Danny could have planned. 

“So are you kidnapping me?” Nicholas asked, a small grin crossing his face.

Danny bit his lip. “Technically, it’d be abduction, since you’re a legal adult.”

“Oh my god, Danny, I’m finally rubbing off on you.”

“Ha!” Danny barked out a laugh, but muttered something under his breath. 

“What was that, Sergeant Butterman?”

Danny looked the picture of innocence, “I ain’t said nothin’.”

“That’s a double negative.”

“Who’re you, then? Mister Spock?”

Nicholas sat, momentarily confused, “What does a child care author have to do with grammar?”

Now, it seemed, was Danny’s turn to be confused, “Wait, who’s talkin’ child care? _Mister_ Spock, not _Doctor_ Spock. I’m thinkin’ _Star Trek_ , which is now on the list, by th’ way.”

“Oh for the… is that science fiction?”

“Yup. The Original Series has three seasons and six movies, and we’re watching all of it. Oh! Is Doctor Spock why you are the way you are?”

“You’re trying to distract me from my original point.

Danny winked. “Maaaybe.”

Nicholas rolled his eyes. “I’ll believe that you said nothing when pigs fly.”

“I’ve seen that before.”

Nicholas quirked an eyebrow. Danny continued, “Y’get really bored sometimes, and then y’get tired of cow tipping. We _may_ have rigged up a catapult that _briefly_ launched a pig airborne.

“Don’t worry!” He added quickly, “the pig was okay. Always against animal cruelty, I am. We launched ‘im into the pond; luckily, pigs can swim. Made a helluva racket, though, with all that squealin’.”

Danny waved his hand, as if dismissing the conversation. “Alls I said was, ‘you wish’.”

Nicholas had to seriously think about what Danny had said, his brain getting caught up in the physics of a porcine catapult. But once it all clicked, he had no idea how to respond to it, except to begin blushing furiously. He glanced over at Danny, hoping the other man hadn’t noticed, but all he saw was Danny staring straight ahead, a funny tilt to his mouth. And if there was blushing, Nicholas figured that it could easily be written off as a reflection of the sunset (or perhaps wishful thinking).

Danny made another turn, and was now in the outskirts of the village proper. “But I’ll go with ‘yeah’. I’m abducting ya, and now you’re at my mercy,” he said, an evil grin spreading across his face.

Nicholas’s mouth hung open in surprise; he hadn’t expected _that_ answer (was that a double entendre?). He was quiet, albeit suspicious, the rest of the ride. 

When Danny pulled into the lay-by by the “Model Village” sign, the sun was just beginning to set. Nicholas cast a sidewards glance at his friend. “What are we doing here?” 

“Told ya, got something much better planned than the pub.” 

Danny climbed out of the car and made for the boot. Nicholas climbed out of the car in time to see his partner load his arms with two small coolers and several blankets. 

“Danny, give me something,” Nicholas said, reaching for the coolers. “You still shouldn’t be lifting that much.”

“Okay _mum_ ,” Danny met Nicholas’s eyes, and they both let out a small laugh. 

“Come on, then.”

They made their way past the barren concrete slabs and eventually settled down by the tree (the tree that Frank crashed into that Danny had since dubbed “The Almighty Tree of Sir Honks”, but Nicholas wasn’t going to think of that) near the fence. Jack Waller, who owned the neighboring farm, had planted loads of bushes along the fence line a little after Nicholas had moved to Sandford, and they had grown nice and fat during the rainy spring. 

Danny spread two of the blankets down on the ground and motioned for Nicholas to sit. 

Instead, Nicholas quirked an eyebrow. “We’re having a picnic? Here? Now?”

Danny clapped and made to sit down. “Of course, a picnic. Ain’t nothin’ better on summer nights.”

“I think you’re thinking of _Grease_.”

Danny waggled his eyebrows. “If I start singing _Stranded at the Drive-In_ , would you join me?” 

Nicholas joined his friend on the blanket and opened the first cooler. Pulling out a sandwich and passing one to Danny, he reached for the second cooler, deducing that that one had to contain drinks (he was right, of course). Popping open his beer, he finally started to relax. 

“Actually, I don’t remember that song. Is that the one with the song about mum never loving her much and daddy never keeping in touch?”

Danny stared at him, dumbfounded. “Nic’las, tha’s a Savage Garden song from 1996.”

Nicholas chewed on his lip. “Oh.”

“Actually, I’m surprised you remember the movie at all,” Danny said. “We saw that one during the appropriately dubbed ‘Monsters and Musicals Week’. ‘Member? We’d watch a musical then a classic horror film?”

The sun was slowly creeping down below the horizon. Stars started popping out in the darkest bits of sky. Danny pulled out his standard issue police torch and turned it on, sticking the bottom of it in the soft ground beyond the blanket, light shining into the tree’s leaves.

“You kinda dozed off during the musicals and hid behind a pillow during th’ scary bits.”

Nicholas pulled a face, slightly embarrassed. “I most certainly did _not_ hide behind a pillow during the ‘scary bits’,” he said, complete with air quotes.

“You most certainly did.”

This earned Danny one of the glares Nicholas reserved for murderers and shadow government members. “I did no - ”

Nicholas stopped mid sentence. He blinked, just to make sure he saw what he saw. “Danny, did you see that?”

Danny took another bite of his sandwich, “No,” he said, “See wha’?”

“That little flash of - ” Nicholas stopped, having seen it again. “There! That little flash of light. In the bushes.” 

Danny squinted, and shook his head. “Ain’t nothin’ there, Nic’las.” 

“No, I swear I saw it… there again! See it?” Nicholas asked, pointing to the bushes, excitement in his voice. “Two of them that time.”

“You’re seein’ things.”

“I can assure you, Daniel Butterman, that I am not seeing things. Ha! Three of them now!”

Danny cocked his head, curious. “... I saw it that time. What is it?”

“I think they’re fireflies.”

“Psh. Ain’t no fireflies in England.”

“No, really. They’re moving around too fast to be anything that can’t fly.” 

“Nic’las. Ain’t. No. Fireflies. In. England.”

Nicholas laughed. “There is nothing you can say that’ll convince me that those are not fireflies.”

Danny leaned back onto his elbows. “See, tha’s what I don’t get about you. You need to be poked with a hot iron spike to watch a film and switch off, but you’ll readily believe that them little glowey things is fireflies? I‘d think you’d sooner believe in faeries.”

“I guess it’s the whimsy,” Nicholas said, mimicking Danny’s position. “I read about them in books when I was younger, and they always seemed a bit magical. Like, you’re in a field, or a cave, and it’s pitch black, and then suddenly whoosh! You’re surrounded by thousands of little flashes of light, and then you can find your way again.”

He eased off his elbows to lie flat on his back, tucking another blanket under his head, and reached up towards the star-splashed sky. “It’s like when I first came here, after the rain those first couple nights. I was on my way back to my room, and as I was walking, I looked up at the sky. And by god, Danny, if I didn’t lose my breath. The only place I’d ever seen that many stars before was a picture in a book by Carl Sagan. Even with the village lights, the sky was awe inspiring. Still is. I mean, you don’t see stars in London. If it’s not the smog, it’s the light pollution, and then maybe only ten or fifteen stars are bright enough to be seen.

“But the sheer brilliance of what I see up there, and those glowing things in the bushes, it almost makes me want to be Kermit the Frog again.”

He looked over to Danny, who was still propped up on his elbows, mouth agape. “That was actually really beautiful,” he said. 

Nicholas felt his cheeks heating up and he averted his gaze, quickly looking away from Danny; maybe he’d said a bit more than he should have. “Thanks.”

He felt Danny lay a hand on his arm, a small spark passing into him through Danny’s fingers. Danny leaned in, “Wha’dya say we come back again next week?”

Nicholas smiled. “I’d like that.”

\- - - - - 

The sixth, seventh, and eighth times were expected.

They’d made it a thing on Thursday evenings to crash at the field for a few hours. Nicholas loved seeing the little glowing dots. 

He’d done some reading (and had shown the articles to Danny, just to drive his point home): it seems that there are occasional reported appearances of fireflies in the southern half of the country (though many people mistook the more common glow worms for fireflies), but they were actually a pretty rare occurrence. 

It became their own private joke, something they’d laugh about when they thought no one was looking. They’d print out forum posts and leave them at each other’s desks: Nicholas gave Danny ones with firefly sightings, Danny gave Nicholas ones debunking fireflies, but they both would share the same smile, the same warmth, the same knowing look. 

Nicholas knew he was right, and nothing Danny said would change his mind.

Leave it to Sandford to have fireflies.

\- - - - - 

They didn’t share their first kiss until the ninth visit.

It was Thursday, and they were back at the field, watching the sun go down. Nicholas wondered if, now that the summer was starting to wind down, the fireflies would disappear.

He hadn’t been let down yet, though; he saw at least four dots on every visit.

“Y’ever think of the future, Nic’las?”

His firefly trance broken, he looked down at his partner. 

“Yeah,” he said, “I think of the future. Not in any concrete terms, really, but more of a generalization.”

Danny peered over. “Like wha’?”

“Well,” Nicholas began, settling down onto his back, “I always thought that I’d retire to a post somewhere in the country. That got sped up by twenty years, though. So now I tend to think of my future in terms of the station: when the new one will be finished, how we’re going to move all that shite in, if the new equipment we requisitioned will ever find us. Short term future.”

“Ever think’a the long term?”

Nicholas sighed. “I did, I think, before I moved out here. Marry Janine, maybe have a kid, though I can’t see myself as a father, work my way up through the ranks at the Met, retire to the country.”

He could feel Danny fidgeting beside him. “D’you regret it? Not getting to do any of tha’?”

“Not in the slightest,” Nicholas replied, looking straight at Danny’s eyes, absolutely no hint of hesitation in his voice. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned here… hell, I’m still _trying_ to learn it… it’s that I need to take life one day at a time. If there’s anything Sandford has taught me, it’s that.”

He rolled over onto his side, facing his partner. “I mean, intuitively I know what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to learn to relax, take each day as it comes, and focus on the short term more than the long term. But I can’t quite make myself do it.”

Danny made a pensive sound. Nicholas felt the heat in his chest.

He scoffed. “How come these trips out here always end up with me jabbering on and you staring off into space?”

“Maybe I like listenin’ to you talk.”

Nicholas huffed out a laugh and picked at a loose thread. “Well, then I know that there is something that I’d like to accomplish in the short term, but I’m not one-hundred percent sure how to go about it.”

Danny finally turned to look at Nicholas. “Can I help?” he asked, licking his bottom lip. Nicholas smiled at the Star Trek reference, having finally seen _City on the Edge of Forever_ two weeks prior.

“Can I help. ‘A hundred years from now, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He’ll recommend those three words even over ‘I love you’.’” he paraphrased. Danny laughed and clapped his hands. Nicholas did a small bow before continuing.

“But you’ve already helped me, Danny. You’re the one that’s been teaching me to live for the day. You’re why I’m learning to switch off. You’re the one helping me remember how to be a person. You’re the whole reason I decided to stay in Sandford. You’re wh - ”

Danny reached out and grabbed Nicholas’s shoulder, shaking him a bit, “Okay, now you’re jus’ rambling. And doin’ that repeatin’ thing again.”

And then, with the warmth back in his chest, Nicholas just _knew_.

"What I’m trying to say, Danny, is that you moved me in a way that I've never known."

"... did you just quote Savage Garden at me?"

"Yeah, I may have, but - "

" - it's not even one of their hits - "

"Yeah, but - "

" - could have at least done _Truly, Madly, Deeply_ \- "

“Yeah - ”

“ - I mean, what’s with you and Savage Garden - ”

"Oh, sod it."

Nicholas grabbed Danny's collar and pulled him into a kiss.

At first, it wasn’t an easy kiss; Nicholas miscalculated his angle of approach and smashed their noses together, but a quick tilt of the head fixed that. And then it became a wonderful kiss.

When they finally broke apart, Nicholas was suddenly filled with doubt. 

_wasthatokaydidIreallyjustdothatohforfuck’ssakehe’sgoingtosockmeeverythingisruined_

But then Danny smiled. “Been wondering if you were gonna do that,” he murmured.

And Nicholas beamed. “I’d like to keep doing that, if that’s alright.”

“I’d like to keep doing anything tha’d keep you smilin’ like that.”

“So this,” he gestured between them nervously, “This is okay?”

“Yeah,” Danny replied, leaning forward to kiss Nicholas again. “This is more than okay. This is _amazing_.”

**Author's Note:**

> All my thanks to the ever fantabulous Day for all the handholding, betaing, and cheerleading. This fic would not be what it is without her!


End file.
